Funding for family planning clinics and access to emergency contraception for rape victims topped the list of issues raised in a recent voter's guide produced by the Wisconsin Alliance for Women's Health.

The guide drew sharp criticism from Pro-Life Wisconsin, with Communications Director Marc Tuttle saying in an e-mail that the guide was the product of a group with "a radical agenda of full taxpayer funding for abortifacient drugs."

The guide, released Sept. 20, was the first of its kind produced by the two-year-old organization, according to WAWH Director Sara Finger.

The WAWH is a statewide network of organizations "dedicated to broadening the base of awareness and support for reproductive health," according to the group's Web site. Members include the National Organization for Women's Wisconsin chapter, the Wisconsin Public Health Association and Planned Parenthood in Wisconsin.

Family planning clinics were the first issue listed in the guide, and a topic that Finger called a high priority for women's health in the state.

According to the guide, clinics offer services such as annual exams, contraceptive access and pregnancy counseling. The guide said spending for these services fails to meet rising demand each year.

Finger also said that despite strong public support for access to emergency contraception for rape victims, no formal legislative hearing on the issue has ever been held — a track record she said WAWH hopes to change.

The guide cited an American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists estimates that expanded access to emergency contraceptives could cut unintended pregnancy and abortion rates in half.

"We expect supporters for compassion and care for rape victims to encourage legislative leaders to address this important issue," she said.

But Tuttle said many of the issues raised in the guide "have nothing to do with health care" and involve practices many Wisconsinites find "morally reprehensible."

He said requiring hospital emergency rooms to provide emergency contraceptives, which he said utilize mechanisms that are tantamount to abortion, "jeopardizes the rights of health care workers not to participate in actions that are immoral."

He said calling emergency contraceptives a health care issue is a misnomer.

"Labeling drugs that sometimes work by killing people as 'health care' is the height of euphemism," he said.

Handing out emergency contraception in hospitals on short notice without adequate information on a patient's health history could also put women at risk for complications associated with the drugs, he said.

He also said family planning services are typically used by healthy women and do nothing to improve women's health.

Citing high rates of unplanned pregnancy and abortion in the United States, he said there is "no evidence that family planning works, and asking the public to continue to fund it is a waste of taxpayer money."

The WAWH's guide also addressed sex education, health care reform and outreach programs for victims of domestic violence. It included questions for voters to ask candidates about their stance on each issue.

Anne Lupardus, deputy press secretary for the Jim Doyle campaign, said Doyle has endorsed legislation requiring access to emergency contraceptives, and fought "extreme Wisconsin legislators" who have sought to cut family planning services.

Mark Green's campaign did return calls placed by the Tribune and could not be reached for immediate comment.

Wisconsin Right to Life, an anti-abortion group, has endorsed Green, saying in its own candidate guide that he has "maintained a 100 percent pro-life voting record." The same guide said Doyle "wants abortion to be legal the entire nine months of pregnancy even as a means of birth control."

Doyle, the incumbent governor, and Green, U.S. congressman for Wisconsin's 8th district, are competing for the governor's office in the Nov. 7 election.